“There were a lot of players obviously in contention after yesterday and I felt like today could be a day to separate or at least keep some momentum and not give yourself too much work to do tomorrow”, said Rose.
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On paper, Justin Rose will stand atop a podium on the Rio Olympic course’s 18th green.
After the field bunched up midway through the third round, the top three held their nerve and pushed clear, with three shots between Fraser and a group at six under.
12, fired eagles on the third and fifth holes to take a one-stroke lead over Australian Marcus Fraser who had been sitting atop the leaderboard since Thursday.
And Fraser’s round could have been even stronger had he not bogeyed two holes on the back nine to allow others to close the gap.
George Lyon of Canada won the last gold medal in 1904. “I think a boa constrictor, if you were to have any kind of encounter with a snake like that, you have enough people here where you could figure out a way to fight it off”.
The three-time European Tour victor finished with a 1-over par 72 in round 3 and has sole possession of third place, 3 shots behind 54-hole leader Justin Rose from Great Britain and 2 strokes back of Sweden’s Henrik Stenson. “It’s still number one that I’m going for”. I feel like I’m a fairly aggressive player … and I’ll continue to do that. Bubba Watson got back into the mix with a 67, including a freakish moment when a piece of mud fell off the bottom of his putter.
His two back-nine bogeys might have cost him a shot at glory tomorrow, but a birdie on 17 capped an otherwise impressive 67 that has him at six under overall.
“It was the funniest thing ever”, Watson said.
“I didn’t play well and I was a little bit off”.
The dual Masters champion was mid-stroke on the 14th green when what he later said was a piece of mud came loose off his putter and he hit what should have been a 12m putt only 2m. Golf will be shown across Channel 7’s various free-to-air stations and will also be streamed live on the network’s “Olympics on 7” app.
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“It would mean an terrible lot to win, especially when you see what it means to other athletes here”, Rose said. “You see what it means to the other Olympic athletes”. He is joined on that score by Sweden’s David Lingmerth and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo who lost his clubs earlier in the week. “Once a guy slips a gold medal around his neck, we’ll all understand how important it is”.
